The Farmer, the Vulture, and the Journalist

Varia
The Role of Media Coverage in the Construction and Reception of Alerts
By François-Joseph Daniel
English

There is sometimes a great deal to be learnt from '?false' alarms. They highlight the essential explanatory elements that profoundly structure the constraints weighing on the conditions of their success. This article examines an abortive alert in the case of attacks by wild vultures on livestock in the Eastern Pyrenees. It shows that the failure of this alert was partially due to the journalistic format of its media coverage. While one of the causes of the failure to sound the alert was clearly related to the strong influence of naturalist knowledge on representations of the vulture, this case study shows that the nature of the media coverage also contributed to discrediting the whistleblower's warning. The small news item did not suffice to trigger the alarm because the communicational intentionality framing interactions between the farmer, the journalist and the readers did not make the existence of a real risk plausible.

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